'Titanic' VFX man joins Indian company

The Indian entertainment industry is becoming more tech savvy

and collaborating with the best in the world. One of the instance of that

is Mumbai-based Century Communication Limited (CCL) roping in the man

behind blockbusters like "Spiderman" and "Titanic" to spearhead its VFX

team. David Crawford, one of the world's finest visual graphic talents, is

joining Pixion, a state-of-the-art post-production arm of CCL. The move

would give Pixion a strong strategic advantage as the world's finest in

this field are now choosing India as their professional destination, said

CCL director Anand Tewari. "This will ensure better production values and

would prove a boon to the growth of the industry," he stated in a press

release.




Crawford, who has Hollywood biggies like "Mission Impossible 2", "XXX" and

"Vanilla Sky" to his credit, has over a decade of experience in Hollywood,

advertising and post-production. His work has won many prestigious awards

including the Oscar, MTV Music Awards. Other than the feature films, he

also worked on ad films for big brands like Nike, Volvo and Burger King.

"A talent like David, who has worked on international visual effects

magnum opus projects, will strengthen our capabilities manifold," said

Naresh Malik, CEO, Pixion. Pixion is working on about 40 films under

various banners to be released in the next six months. About 80 films are

in the pipeline for the year ending 2008.




In the last few years there has been a marked increase in high-end

post-production in Asia, especially in India which 2006 saw "Krrish" and

"Dhoom 2". This trend is the result of three main factors - firstly, the

paradigm shift for high quality production of content for domestic

markets. Secondly, the cost advantage of outsourcing post production to

India. Lastly, there's the crossover phenomenon - the production of Asian

content for international markets. The Indian animation industry is

currently estimated to be worth Rs.11 billion ($271 million) and is

expected to increase to Rs.29 billion by 2011. The VFX industry in the

country is expected to grow from the current Rs.900 million to Rs.2.7

billion at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.5 per cent.